Rotary hydraulic door closer



June 11, 1968 R. w. WALDO ROTARY HYDRAULIC DOOR CLOSER 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 ....---1 I r w-t imx izo Filed Nov. 7, 1966 INVENTOR.

RUSSELL W W2|L00 %M%% I ATTORNEYS June 11, 1968 Filed Nov. 7, 1966 -R. W. WALDO ROTARY HYDRAULIC DOOR CLOSER 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 RUSSELL W Wig? INVENTOR.

T/l/ALDO ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,387,320 ROTARY HYDRAULIC DOOR CLOSER Russell W. Waldo, St. Paul, Minn, assignor to Ideal Security Hardware Corporation, a corporation of Minnesota Filed Nov. 7, 1966, Ser. No. 592,541 1 Claim. (Cl. 16-58) ABSTRACT 6F THE DISCLOSURE The present door closer involves a generally vertically disposed cylindrical casing having a closed bottom and an intermediate transverse wall element dividing the interial of the easing into an upper spring chamber and a lower hydraulic chamber, the upper chamber being closed by a cover element non-rotatably mounted on the upper end of the casing. An axial shaft is journalled in the casing and is formed to provide a radial vane in the hydraulic chamber, the edges of the vane being closely spaced from adjacent wall surface portions of the casing and transverse wall element. The casing is formed to provide a radial partition extending for the axial length of the hydraulic chamber and having a radially inner edge disposed in closely spaced relation to the shaft, the space therebetween and the spaces between the vane and hydraulic chamber surfaces providing restricted passages for hydraulic liquid from one side of the vane to the opposite side thereof during door opening and closing rotation of the shaft. A sleeve is journalled on the shaft in the spring chamber and in the cover element, and is yieldingly urged in the direction of door closing rotation of the shaft, and a pair of cooperating door closing arms having pivotally connected adjacent ends, one of the arms being pivotally connected to a bracket and the other thereof being rigidly but releasably secured to the shaft and the sleeve, the casing and bracket having means for connection to a door and door frame respectively.

This invention relates generally to door closers and more particularly to improvements in rotary hydraulic door closers.

Heretofore, rotary hydraulic door closers have utilized various valve arrangements to control the flow of liquid therein, as well as other rather complicated structure involving the use of many parts.

An important object of this invention is the provision of a door closer which uses a minimum number of parts, and which is devoid of valves in the hydraulic system thereof.

Another object of this invention is the provision of a door closer which has a controlling effect on opening movements of a door as well as on closing movements thereof, whereby to reduce the effect of high winds in their tendency to rapidly swing a partially opened door toward its limit of opening movement. It is known that when a door, devoid of such control is rapidly and forcibly swung to its limit of opening movement, damage to the door or its hinges often occurs.

Yet another object of this invention is the provision of a door closer as set forth which can be quickly and easily adjusted to vary the closing bias imparted thereby to a door, and which can be quickly and easily adapted to right or left hand doors without the use of special tools. The above, and still further highly important objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following detailed specification, appended claim and attached drawings.

Referring to the drawings, which illustrate the invention and in which like reference characters indicate like parts throughout the several views:

3,387,320 Patented June '11, 1968 FIG. 1 is a fragmentary view partly in plan and partly in horizontal section, showing the door closer of this invention applied to a door and door casing;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary view partly in side elevation and partly in vertical section, of the structure illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged vertical fragmentary section taken substantially on the line 3-3 of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 4, 5, 6 and 7 are transverse sections taken on the lines 4-4, 55, 6-6 and 77, of FIG. 3, on a reduced scale;

FIG. 8 is a view corresponding to FIG. 7 but showing a different position of one of the parts;

FIG. 9 is a view corresponding to a portion of FIG. 3, but showing a different position of some of the parts;

FIG. 10 is a fragmentary axial section taken substantially on the line 1il1i? of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 11 is an enlarged fragmentary axial section taken on the line 11-41 of FIG. 1.

In the drawings, a door frame member or jamb is indicated generally at 1, a door 2 being hinged thereto, as indicated at 3, for movements between door closed and opened position, as shown by full and dotted lines respectively in FIG. 1. The door closer of this invention includes a generally cylindrical casing 4 having a mounting flange 5 at one side thereof or attachment to the door 2, by means of anchoring screws or the like 6. As shown, the casing 4 is preferably axially vertically disposed, the lower end of the casing 4 being formed to provide a hollow cylindrical boss 7 on which is mounted an angle bracket 8 fastened to the door 2 by one or more screws 9. The casing 4 is preferably die cast from suitable metal, such as an alloy of zinc, aluminum or the like, the upper portion of the casing 4 defining the side wall of a generally cylindrical spring chamber 10, the lower portion of the casing 4 defining the side wall of a generally cylindrical hydraulic chamber 11. The boss 7 is formed as a portion of the bottom wall 12 of the hydraulic chamber 11, the top wall of the hydraulic chamber 11 being formed by an annular Washer 13 that rests upon an annular shoulder 14 in the casing 4. The wall element or washer 13 is held in place by an annular retaining member 15 formed to provide annular recesses for inner and outer sealing rings 16 and 17 respectively. Above the retaining member 15, the casing 4 is formed to provide a second annular shoulder 18, circumferentially spaced portions of which are peened radially inwardly and downwardly, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 6 and indicated at 19, to permanently hold the washer 13 and retaining member 15 in place. An annular cover element 20 is removably mounted on the upper end of the casing 4, said upper end of the casing 4 defining a pair of diametrically opposed generally rectangular notches 21 that receive cooperating lugs 22 in the cover element 20, to hold the cover element 20 against rotation relative to the casing 4. For a purpose which will hereinafter become apparent, the cover element 20 is provided with a plurality of circumferentially spaced upwardly opening recesses or holes 23. the cover element further defining a central opening 24.

An elongated drive sleeve 25 extends axially of the spring chamber 10 and is provided with a diametrically enlarged upper end 26 that is journalled in the central opening 24 of the cover element 29. The enlarged upper end 26 is formed to provide a radial flange 27 that defines a plurality of radially outwardly opening notches 28 that overlie the recesses or holes 23 in the cover element 20. A spirally wound spring 29 is disposed in the spring chamber 10 and is provided at its inner end with a radially int-urned flange 30 that is received in an axially extending groove 31 in the sleeve 25. At its outer end, the spring 29 is formed to provide a radially outwardly projecting flange 32 that is received in an axially extending radially inwardly opening groove 33 in the casing 4, see FIG. 5. The spring 29 is wound in a direction to yieldingly urge the sleeve in a direction of rotary movement to close the door 2 as will hereinafter appear.

Extending axially of the casing 4 is an elongated shaft 34 that is journalled at its lower end in the boss 7 and at its upper end portion in the sleeve 25. The shaft 34 extends through the washer 13 and annular retaining member 15, and has sealing engagement with the inner sealing ring 16, the ring 16 being preferably in the form of a commercially available O-ring. At its upper end, above the upper end of the sleeve 25, the shaft 34 is formed to provide a cross sectionally polygonal shank 35 which receives one end portion of a rigid arm 36. As shown in FIG. 4, the shank 35 is square in cross section, said end portion of the arm 36 having a square opening 37 therethrough for reception of the shank 35. The arm 36 is releasably secured to the shaft 34 by a washer equipped anchoring screw or the like 38 that is screw threaded into a threaded axial opening in the upper end of the shaft 34. Further, as shown in FIGS. 1, 4 and 11, the arm 36 is formed to provide a pair of depending ears 39 that are received in diametrically opposite ones of the notches 28 in the flange 27. This arrangement, together with the fitting of the shank 35 in the opening 37, locks the arm 36, sleeve 25 and shaft 34 together for common rotation on the axis of the shaft 34 and casing 4. At its outer end, the arm 36 is pivotally connected to one end of a second arm 40, by means of a pivot connection 41, on an axis parallel to the axis of the shaft 34. The opposite end of the arm 40 is pivotally connected to a mounting bracket 42, as indicated at 43 on an axis parallel to the axis of the pivot connection 41, the bracket 42 being rigidly mounted to the door jamb 1, by screws or the like 44. The arms 36 and 40 are so arranged, and the mounting of the bracket 42 and casing 4 is such that the shaft 34 and sleeve 25 rotate substantially 180 during swinging movement of the door 2 to a like extent. As the door 2 is opened, corresponding rotation of the shaft 34 and sleeve 35 causes the spring 29 to be tightened so that, when the door is released, the spring 29 will impart rotary movement to the shaft 34 and sleeve 25 in a direction to close the door 2.

Within the hydraulic chamber 11, the shaft 34 is formed to provide a stop collar 45 which is adapted to engage the overlying wall element or washer 13 to limit upward axial movement of the shaft 34, said shaft 34 further being provided with an integrally formed radial vane 46 having a radially outer edge that is disposed in closely spaced relation to the adjacent inner wall surface of the hydraulic chamber 11, and opposite ends that are disposed in closely spaced relation to the washer 13 and easing bottom wall 12. The casing 4 is provided with an integrally formed radially inwardly projecting partition 47 that extends from the bottom wall 12 to the wall element or washer 13 and cooperates with the vane 46 to divide the hydraulic chamber 11 into a pair of expanding and contracting chamber sections 48 and 49. As shown particularly in FIGS. 7 and 8, the radially inner edge of the partition 47 is disposed in closely spaced relation to the shaft 34, the space between the partition 47 and shaft 34, and the spaces between the edges of the vane 46 and adjacent surfaces of the chamber 11 providing restricted passages for How of hydraulic fluid from one of the chamber sections 48 and 49 to the other thereof during opening and closing movements of the door 2. With reference to FIGS. 7, 8 and 10, it will be seen that the casing 4 is formed to provide a pair of circumferentially spaced inwardly opening recesses 50 and 51 in the upper end portion of the hydraulic chamber 11, the recesses 50 and 51 having radially inwardly and downwardly sloping radially outer surfaces 52 and 53 respectively. The recesses 50 and 51 are so disposed circumferentially of the casing 4 as to provide relatively unrestricted flow of fluid from one of the chamber sections 48 and 49 to the other thereof during final closing movements of the door 2. In the arrangement shown, and with reference particularly to FIG. 7, it will be seen that, during final closing movements of the door, the radial vane 46 is in register with the recess 50, the vane 46 being disposed in its full line position of FIG. 7 when the door 2 is fully closed. When the door is fully opened, the vane 46 will be in substantially the position shown by dotted lines in FIG. 7. Thus, during initial opening movements of the door, which imparts rotation to the shaft 34 in a clockwise direction with respect to FIG. 7, hydraulic fluid, not shown, in the hydraulic chamber 11 flows freely from the contracting chamber section 48 to the expanding chamber section 49 through the recess 50, until the vane 46 arrives at its position shown at FIG. 8. Further opening movement of the door 2 will require slightly more effort on the part of the user due to restricted flow of hydraulic liquid from the chamber section 48 to the chamber section 49 between the edges of the vane 46 and the adjacent wall surface portions of the chamber 11 and between the shaft 34 and the radially inner edge of the radial partition 47. Then, when the open door is released, and closing movement imparted to the door by the spring 29, flow of fluid from the contracting chamber section 49 to the expanding chamber section 48 will be restricted and such closing movement of the door will be slightly retarded until the vane 46 comes into register with the recess 50, after which the spring 29 will be enabled to firmly close the door 2. With this arrangement, should a user open the door 2 during windy weather, restricted flow from one of the hydraulic chamber sections to the other will effectively prevent the wind from opening the door to its fully opened condition with such force as to damage the door.

When it is desired to adjust the tension of the spring 29, to vary the closing force exerted thereby on the door 2, a nail, pin or similar object, indicated at 54 in FIG. 9, is inserted to one of the notches 28 into an underlying recess 23 to lock the sleeve 25 against rotation relative to the casing 4. The arm 36 is then disconnected from the shaft 34 and sleeve 25, and a spanner wrench or similar tool is applied to the flange 27 of the sleeve 25, after which the pin 54 is removed and the sleeve 25 rotated in a direction to increase or decrease the tension of the spring 29, as desired. In the event that a spanner wrench is not available, the sleeve 25 is raised relative to the shaft 34 and cover element 20, as shown in FIG. 9, and the arm 36 used as a spanner wrench to rotate the sleeve 25 as desired. After rotation of the sleeve 25 to the desired extent, the same is again locked in place 'by the pin 54 and the arm 36 again secured to the sleeve 25 and shaft 34.

In the drawings, the door closer is shown as applied to a right hand door. In order to quickly and easily adapt the same to a left hand door, it is only necessary to remove the arm 36 from the shaft 34 and sleeve 25, and lift the sleeve 25 and cover element 20 out of the casing 4. The spring 29 may then be lifted out of the spring chamber 10, inverted and replaced therein. The cover element 20 and sleeve 25 are replaced, the shaft 34 rotated to bring the vane 46 int-o proper angular relationship with the radial partition 47 and the arm 36 remounted on the shaft 34 and sleeve 25. When the closer is thus reassembled for use with a left hand door, the recess 51 becomes operative to provide for free or unrestricted passage of liquid from one of the chamber sections 48 and 49 to the other thereof, the vane 46 moving into and out of register with the recess during final closing and initial opening movements respectively, of the door 2.

In the initial assembly of the door closer, the shaft 34 is inserted into the casing 4, after which the hydraulic chamber 11 is filled substantially to the level of the shoulder 14 with hydraulic liquid. The wall forming washer 13 and retaining member 15 with the sealing rings 16 and 1-7 are then inserted in the casing 4 and perm-anently secured by peening portions of the shoulder 18, as indicated at 19, after which the spring 29, sleeve 25 and cover plate 20 are added to the assembly.

This invention has been thoroughly tested and found to be completely satisfactory for accomplishment of the objectives set forth; and, while I have shown and described a commercial embodiment of door closer, it will be understood that the same is capable of modification without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, as defined in the claim.

What is claimed is:

1. A door closer comprising:

(a) casing means including an axially vertically disposed generally cylindrical casing having a closed bottom, and a transverse wall element dividing the interior of the easing into a lower hydraulic chamber and an upper spring chamber,

(b) a cover element for said spring chamber removably mounted on the upper end of said casing and having means for holding the cover element against rotation relative to said casing and a plurality of circumferentially spaced upwardly opening recesses,

(c) an axial shaft journalled in said casing means and having a radially projecting vane in said hydraulic chamber,

((1) a pair of rigid arms having adjacent inner ends pivotally connected together,

(e) abracket,

(D said arms each having an outer end one pivotally secured to said bracket and the other rigidly removably secured to said shaft above said cover element,

(g) means for mounting said bracket and easing means one to a door and the other to a door casing,

(h) a sleeve journalled on said shaft and in said cover element and including a radially outwardly projecting flange overlying said cover element and defining a plurality of cireumferentially spaced notches overlying and movable into registration with said recesses responsive to rotation of said sleeve, the adjacent one of said arms being formed to provide a pair of depending ears each received in an underlying one of said notches,

(i) and a spring in said spring chamber connected at opposite ends to said casing and sleeve and yieldingly urging said sleeve in a door closing direction of rotatation thereof,

(j) said casing including an axially extending radial partition having a radially inner edge in closely spaced relation to said shaft, said casing defining a pair of substantially diametrically opposed radially inwardly opening recesses below said wall element and disposed at opposite sides of said radial partition to provide a liquid passage means between opposite sides of said vane responsive to predetermined rotary movement of said shaft and vane in opposite directions, a given of said notches spaced from said adjacent arm and in register with a selected one of said recesses being adapted to receive a locking pin inserted into said selected recess to releasably lock said sleeve against rotation, whereby to permit removal of said adjacent arm from said sleeve and shaft for adjustment of said spring.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,547,957 7/1925 Reinhold 1651 X 1,697,577 1/1929 Shultz 16-58 1,803,258 4/=l931 Kalthoff 1651 X 1,970,008 8/ 1934 Larson 16--58 2,027,423 1/1936 Gardiner 1658 X 2,479,835 8/1949 'Hill 16-5-8 X FOREIGN PATENTS 22,403 9/ 1910 Great Britain.

BOBBY R. GAY, Primary Examiner.

J. L. KOHNEN, Assistant Examiner. 

